The Aporia · Passengers recall sickening plunge, screams during flydubai plane hijacking: ‘I was just sure I was going to die’

Passengers recall sickening plunge, screams during flydubai plane hijacking: ‘I was just sure I was going to die’

Read the original at New York Post ↗

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

Reyes, R. (2026, September 30). Passengers recall sickening plunge, screams during flydubai plane hijacking: ‘I was just sure I was going to die’. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/09/30/world-news/passengers-recall-sickening-plunge-screams-during-flydubai-plane-hijacking/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

Passengers on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv recounted their terrifying experience when the plane suddenly nosedived after a suspected hijacking attempt by a co-pilot, leading to injuries and bloodshed in the cockpit. During the incident, some passengers intervened heroically to subdue the attacker at the captain’s request. The survivors described the scene as chaotic with screams of terror filling the cabin and praised those who helped ensure the flight could safely land in Saudi Arabia.

Written by AI on 2026-09-30, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On September 30, 2026, a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv signaled an emergency and was diverted to land at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. The incident initially raised concerns about a possible hijacking, prompting Israel to scramble warplanes. However, Israeli officials later reported that the emergency signals were due to a physical altercation between the plane's two pilots rather than a hijacking attempt.

The flight, identified as Flydubai Flight FZ1073, transmitted multiple emergency alerts after takeoff and over Jordanian airspace before landing safely in Saudi Arabia. Passengers on board managed to overpower the attacker, who was later identified by UAE officials as Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami. Al-Hammami allegedly attempted to crash the plane into Tel Aviv's airport but was stopped by passengers.

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi stated that signs of al-Hammami’s radicalization first emerged in 2017 while he was studying engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He reportedly became influenced by extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organizations during this period.

Written for “Flydubai Hijacker's Radicalization Path” on 2026-10-31, grounded in this article and the 345 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 13 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

66/100

New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

346

Crime & Law

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Who wrote this

Ronny Reyes

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All 64 articles by Ronny Reyes →

Topics

Channel 24 Flight 1073 Israel Tel Aviv flydubai

Subjects

Shahar PERSON · 2× CNN ORG · 1× Channel 24 ORG · 1× Israel GPE · 1× Mika Bauman PERSON · 1× Miriam Ohayon PERSON · 1× Ohayon PERSON · 1× Smit Machchhar PERSON · 1× Tel Aviv GPE · 1× flydubai ORG · 1×

Narrative

Itzhak Liber, one of passenger who helped subdue the attacker, said his clothes were covered in blood, with images of the cockpit and injured pilot highlighting the merciless nature of the attack. “I will have to change my clothes [because] they are filled with blood,” Liber said in a social media post from inside the plane confirming that the terror suspect had been apprehended.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-30

🔮 Itzhak Liber, one of passenger who helped subdue the attacker, said his clothes were covered in blood, with images of the cockpit and injured pilot highlighting the merciless nature of the attack. “I will have to change my clothes [because] they are filled with blood,” Liber said in a social media post from inside the plane confirming that the terror suspect had been apprehended.

2026-09-30 · New York Post

Passengers recall sickening plunge, screams during flydubai plane hijacking: ‘I was just sure I was going to die’ · assertive framing

Claims (13 extracted, 1 hedged)

Passengers aboard the flydubai plane at the center of a suspected terrorist attack described the chaos on board as a bloody mess as they thanked the heroes who helped avert a tragedy on Wednesday. asserted

who → suspect → Wednesday

Miriam Ohayon, whose brother was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, said all hell broke loose on board when Flight 1073 began to nosedive en-route to Tel Aviv. asserted

Flight → kill → Aviv

After the flight captain, Smit Machchhar, released the cockpit doors, Ohayon recalled the shrieks of terror at the sight of the bloody pilot. asserted

Ohayon → release → pilot

“We heard screams on the plane, and when they opened the cockpit, there was a lot of blood,” she told Israel’s Channel 24. asserted

she → hear → Channel

Fellow passenger Mika Bauman said the feeling of the plane losing some 18,000 feet was a million times worse than a drop on a rollercoaster. asserted

plane → say → rollercoaster

“I was just sure I was going to die,” she told CNN. asserted

she → go → CNN

“You’re just siting there and accepting your fate.” asserted

You → sit → fate

Bauman added that after the ordeal, the passengers were able to tank the heroes who subdued the rogue co-pilot that attacked Machchhar, noting that they were easy to recognize because they were all covered in blood. asserted

they → add → blood

suspect → help → plane

Zvika Manes, an Israeli banking executive, echoed the description after he and others answered the injured pilot’s desperate please for help. asserted

he → echo → help

Lital Shahar, who was riding with her four daughters, said her family was scared to death during the experience as they heard the panic aboard the plane. asserted

they → rid → plane

Despite the terror, Shahar said she was comforted by the heroism of her fellow passengers and that two off-duty pilots happened to be aboard to help land the plane. asserted

pilots → say → plane

“There were two miracles — that Israelis were on the plane who heroically went into the cockpit… and that there were off-duty pilots onboard who could land the plane in Saudi Arabia,” Shahar told the Times of Israel. uncertain

Shahar → be → Israel